On May 21, 2005 a monument was unveiled in Seneca, Illinois, dedicated to all the workers, who built 157 LSTs at the Seneca “Prairie Shipyard” as well as all those who served on any LST during World War II, Korea, and Viet Nam. The monument contains seals of the US Navy, the US Coast Guard, the British LST Association, and the sponsoring organization, the Illinois LST Association. The monument contains a sculpture of an LST on top of the gray marble center section. On the two flanking black marble sections are etchings of an LST being launched, an LST beached and unloading its cargo of tanks, and a woman shipyard welder. On the sides of the black sections all 157 LSTs constructed at Seneca are listed The monument stands in Crotty Park in Seneca, on property adjacent to the old Chicago Bridge and Iron shipyard. Approximately 500 people from all over the country and Great Britain attended the dedication. After the dedication, approximately 200 of those in attendance gathered together for a catered lunch. About 27,000 people worked at the shipyard during World War II. A number of those and/or their descendants attended the ceremony. They are rightly proud of their contribution to the war effort, as is the city of Seneca, Illinois, the home of the “Prairie Shipyard”.

The Prairie Shipyard

By Barbara Forgy Schock
The Zephyr, Galesburg
After the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States declared war on that nation. Military planners knew it would be a two-ocean campaign as the conflict was already underway in Europe. Vessels which could carry men, equipment and supplies long distances and discharge them on a beach would be required. The Navy began a program of building ships for that purposeOn February 6, 1942, Congress appropriated billions of dollars for war industries. As a result, the war output of the United States increased 25 times in the next several years. War production covered the landscape and thousands of individuals moved to work in those plants.This paper was originally written for presentation to the Rebecca Parke Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution in 1999. It seems appropriate to recall it now that LST-325 is docked in Peoria. The ship has revived many memories in the minds of veterans and war workers of those long ago days.It was quite a sight to see a large steel ship rising over the flat prairie on the north bank of the Illinois River at Seneca, Illinois. The Chicago Bridge and Iron Company had been awarded a contract by the U.S. Navy for the building of Landing Ship Tanks, known as LSTs. The company began preparing the shipyard in May, 1942. On June 15, 1942, the first ship was laid.The Chicago Bridge and Iron Company’s main business was building pressurized tanks of various types and shapes all over the world. Many a town had a water tower which had been constructed by CBI. They had a reputation for quality workmanship and efficiency.

The company had been chosen to build the LSTs because of their reputation and skills, particularly welding. There was another reason why the military had decided to produce boats in the interior of the country. The coastal shipyards were busy building the large vessels such as aircraft carriers, battleships, cruisers and destroyers. There was no alternative but to use the inland waterways for the production of smaller ships. The Bureau of Ships estimated there was a need for 500 smaller craft of various kinds.There were other shipyards in Illinois during World War II. Barges were built on the Missisippi River at Quincy. East Saint Louis also had a shipyard. Of course, there were shipyards in Chicago, too. Many of the naval parts were fabricated by factories and foundaries in Chicago.  Nearly a billion dollar’s worth of ships were produced in the state in a three year period.The Illinois River had been dredged to a depth of 9 1/2 feet so it could accommodate this type of ship. It also connected to the Mississippi River and the port of New Orleans from which the vessels could go to any theater of the war.The site for the Seneca shipyard had been selected because there was a solid sandstone base under it. After clearing the top soil and creviced limestone, the underlying foundation would be strong enough to bear the weight of all that steel.It was a wedge-shaped piece of pasture and corn land of 200 acres on the bank of the Illinois River. The shipyard stretched for three-fourths of a mile along the river side. The shipbuilding was arranged so there were 15 berths parallel to the river. As the ships were completed they were moved to a central way and then prepared for launch.Each LST was 327 feet in length and weighed 5,500 tons. Sections were fabricated and hoisted into place. Then the pieces were welded together. Very little scaffolding was used in the construction of the ships because that cost time and money. Speed was of the essence at the time they were being built.CBI trained teams of workers to perform certain tasks. Most jobs began with a two week training period, but the welders were trained for four to six weeks. The teams moved from ship to ship doing the same work on each one.Sixteen different trades were involved in the construction of the LSTs. The unionized skilled workers were paid $1.20 an hour. Laborers were paid 83 cents an hour. There were two 9-hour shifts six days a week. Each person worked a 54-hour week. The work time over 48 hours was paid at a time-and-a-half rate. The peak number of employees in the yard was 11,000. The beginning and ending of  a shift was staggered at 15 minute intervals to regulate the flow of traffic.As I have said, the LST initials stand for landing ship tank. The Navy wanted a flat bottom ocean-going vessel capable of carrying tanks and troops a long distance and landing them on a beach. The bow of the ship was designed with two large doors which opened so that a ramp could come down on the beach for unloading. The ship was also capable of removing itself from the beach and bringing in another load of men and machines. It also had to have enough armament to protect itself. Originally, the ships were not expected to have a very long life. If one LST successfully completed one trip, the Navy planners knew it would be worth its cost.The LSTs opened their bow doors on the beaches so well that specifications were added to increase the life of the ships. Some of them were fitted to serve as “baby flat tops” for the landing of small aircraft. Some were even fitted for transporting railroad equipment.It took six months to complete the first LST at Seneca because the shipyard was being constructed at the same time. The ship that had been laid back in June, 1942 was launched on December 13, 1942. There would be another 156 ships launched before the end of the war. The company planned to build one LST each week when peak efficiency was reached. They were able to produce seven ships a month!The first ship took 880,000 manhours to complete. By the time the last ship was launched, only 280,000 manhours were required to complete each one. In other words, the work required to complete a ship had been cut by two-thirds. That is an astonishing statistic.Launch day was always an exciting time in the shipyard. Each ship had a female sponsor who broke a bottle of champagne over the bow just before the ship slide down the ways into the river. CBI even kept track of the amount of champagne used to christen the ships. They used 39 gallons of the bubbly liquid.Since the river was narrow, the ships were launched sideways. They slid down the ways on a 3/8 inch thick layer of launching grease and hit the water at a speed of 22 to 28 miles an hour. Observers on the south bank of the river were frequently drenched by the wave of water traveling from the river across the fields.Each LST was then tied up at the fitting dock for trials. Their engines were run at 2/3 of their maximum speed during the final inspection to be sure they were operating correctly. A crew of sailors also arrived to take up their work and to get ready to go down the river.The LSTs were given numbers as identification. Only a few of the ships had names. These were utilitarian ships and weren’t expected to survive for very long.My parents, William and Theresa Forgy, moved to Seneca, Illinois, in November, 1942. I was seven years old and my sister, Mary Ann, was almost six. My father had decided to leave farming. The farm on which he worked with his father was only 80 acres. (It had been purchased by my great grandmother in 1886 and is now registered as an Illinois Centennial Farm.) My grandfather didn’t see any reason to replace the horses he had always used.After graduating from high school, my father had received training in electrical work at a technical school in Chicago.  He graduated at the bottom of the depression and there was no job for him. He took up farming as a result. When World War II began there was a great demand for trained workers of every kind. My father saw his opportunity and decided to follow that line of work as his contribution to the war effort.He heard that the Chicago Bridge and Iron Company which usually built water towers had been enlisted by the U.S. Navy to begin building LSTs on the Illinois River at Seneca. He applied for a job and was hired on the spot.His first job was checking the pyrometers on the engines of the ship. A pyrometer is a device to check the temperature inside the combustion chambers of an engine. Later, he was transferred to another team. There, his job was to wire the mast of the ship for the newly developed radar that was being installed. When each ship went down the river, the mast was laid flat on the deck. At New Orleans, the mast was raised again and the necessary radar equipment installed. The first job was a hot one in the summer time, the second  was a cold one in the winter time. But, my father enjoyed every minute of it.CBI received the “E” Award in June 1943. This was an efficiency award given by the U.S. Navy for meeting certain standards of production. It was a coveted honor among companies holding contracts with the military. The company paid for a full page advertisement in the Chicago Daily Tribune to announce its “E” award. I still have the sterling silver “E” pin that my father received.Seneca was a quiet village of 1,235 residents. There was no sewage treatment plant, no newspaper, no movie theater and one doctor. A night watchman constituted the police department. The town had been established in the 19th century as a watering stop for the railroad. This little place on the eastern edge of LaSalle County was inundated by over 10,000 shipyard workers. Housing had to be built, utilities had to be installed, streets and roads had to be constructed, schools had to be expanded.The people of Seneca took a dim view of all this disturbance in their nice little town located 90 miles southwest of Chicago.They didn’t like having all those people coming from all directions and at least 26 states to work in the shipyard. They didn’t like having an additional 1,500 dwellings built to accomodate the workers and their families. They didn’t like having the government agencies coming in to build all the facilities necessary to take care of so many people.At the end of the war, Seneca had a new school building, a waterworks and sewage disposal system, better streets, and fire protection equipment. The town went back to the way it had been, but with a lot of memories.In 1987 I took my father back to Seneca for a reunion of some of the Navy men who had served on the LST. We took a boat ride on the Illinois River to see what was left of the shipyard. We could still see the launching ways on the river bank. The concrete fitting dock was crumbling away, but was still recognizable. The site is now a gravel pit. Since the top soil had been removed, the land could never be farmed again and the prairie couldn’t return.